I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Author: Sheila Morris

  • Answer: 300 Million Dollars a Day (from the archives)

    Answer: 300 Million Dollars a Day (from the archives)


    On October 27, 2011 I published the following post. I’m no foreign policy expert or even wonk, but I am devastated by the disastrous unraveling of order – the chaos that is Afghanistan as the United States leaves a country it first sent troops to in October, 2001.

    Answer: 300 Million Dollars a Day

    Question:  How much does the United States spend on the War in Afghanistan?

    Sigh.   If only I’d been watching Jeopardy instead of 60 Minutes last night.   If only The Good Wife hadn’t moved to Sunday nights for the new fall season in 2011.   If only the football game on CBS had ended on time so I wouldn’t have gotten started watching 60 Minutes because I wanted to know when The Good Wife would actually be coming on later.   If only I’d remembered my New Year’s Resolution to avoid TV news shows at all costs.  

    But no, I wasn’t watching Jeopardy.  Instead,  I got hooked on a segment of the  60 Minutes  Sunday evening news program commemorating the anniversary of the ten-year War in Afghanistan and an interview with the two men responsible for its, ahem, conclusion.   As if. 

    So the interview goes by swimmingly with numbers rolling off the tongues of men who look stern and tired and unhappy to be where they are, including the interviewer.   Number of American lives lost so far?   1,800.   One thousand eight hundred men and women no longer with us or their families and friends.   1,800.   Gone.  Immense, immeasurable, staggering loss.

    Number of dollars spent so far?   Half a trillion.   I don’t even know how many zeroes to put in half a trillion.   I’ll call it a gazillion and I’ll break it down into smaller numbers so we can all relate to it.   Let’s see.   That would be about two billion dollars a week or 300 million dollars a day.   Oh, okay.   That’s easier to understand.   If we put this in Powerball lottery terms, we’re spending 20 Powerball lotteries of 15 million dollars each on a daily basis in a country that hates us on a war that will never be over and wonder why we have an uncontrollable federal deficit.   Seriously.   As my daddy used to say, the inmates are running the asylum.

    Oh, and the two men responsible for bringing this war to a successful conclusion?    The same team that helped to end the insurgency in Iraq.   I kid you not.

    I will not watch TV news shows.   I will not watch TV news shows.   I will not watch TV news shows.   Maybe if I don’t watch them, the news will vanish Without a Trace, which is what I prefer to watch along with The Good Wife.

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    IMG_20210816_093722329

    Screen shot today of US stats – not including the costs by NATO allies, most especially Germany and the UK, Canadian involvement until 2013, and the immeasurable loss of lives and property by the civilian population of Afghanistan in the past 20 years.

    And guess what? We made a pact with the Devil who has regained control of a country he never left…and never will.

    I remember another 20 year war from 1955 – 1975 in a faraway place known as Vietnam. I know, I know. No comparison, says Secretary of State Blinken. But I vaguely remember helicopters landing and taking off from rooftops to rescue people then like the images I saw today in Kabul. God help the women and children of Afghanistan.

    I will not watch TV news shows. I will not watch TV news shows. I will not watch TV news shows. Somebody stop me.

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    Stay safe, stay sane, get vaccinated please and stay tuned.

  • Back to School! Back to School?

    Back to School! Back to School?


    Ella James says, Keep us safe

    “New, more contagious variants of the coronavirus are causing transmission and hospitalization rates to spike across the country as more than 50 million children head back to school, scuttling well-laid plans by school districts to safely return students to classrooms – some for the first time in over a year – and ratcheting up the politics of reopening.” (US News August 04, 2021 by Lauren Camera)

    Included in that stat of 50 million children returning to school in the fall of 2021 is our granddaughter, Ella James, who is going to preschool for the first time. She will be two years old on October 1st., and while I want to celebrate her opportunity to begin a journey in learning that will continue to spark the curiosity she already has, but since I am also the resident family “worrier,” I am almost a Gemini in my conflict about this coming Monday which will be her first day of school. For an unshakable Taurus to be of two minds is torture.

    Why am I the only one climbing these rocks?

    Ella’s first class will have nine boys and three girls. That doesn’t worry me.

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    Keeping all children safe as they go to school is not a political battle – it’s not about being a Republican, Democrat, or Independent. To keep our 50 million children, their teachers and staffs safe in whatever environment they are assigned is the responsibility of the adults in the room: in the school board rooms, in the governors’ mansions, in the state legislative conference rooms, in the halls of the nation’s capitol, in the Oval Office of the White House.

    I am tired of worrying about the coronavirus – I wish I had never heard the word Covid. But wishing does not mean this fight is over. Please, for the sake of the children, for the sake of yourself, get vaccinated. Wear a mask.

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    Stay safe, stay sane, and please stay tuned.

  • no justice rolling down – or up – for Breonna Taylor

    no justice rolling down – or up – for Breonna Taylor


    A makeshift memorial in downtown Louisville, Ky., for Breonna Taylor in September 2020. Taylor was killed March 13, 2020 in her home during a botched narcotics raid carried out by Louisville police. Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

    (from NPR special series America Reckons with Racial Injustice on March 13, 2021 by Brakkton Booker and Rachel Treisman):

    “Before Breonna Taylor’s name became synonymous with police violence against Black Americans, she was an emergency medical technician in Louisville, Ky.

    The 26-year-old Black woman’s friends and family say she was beloved, and relished the opportunity to brighten someone else’s day.

    Exactly one year ago, Louisville police gunned her down in her home. Now, her name is a ubiquitous rallying cry at protests calling for police reforms, and many social justice advocates point to her story as an example of how difficult it can be to hold police accountable for violent acts.

    The Louisville incident unfolded during a botched narcotics raid, when (3) officers forced their way into her apartment in the early morning hours of March 13, 2020. Taylor was not the target of the raid and the suspect police were searching for was not at Taylor’s home.”

    On September 23, 2020 Brett Hankison, one of the three police officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor, was indicted on first degree wanton endangerment charges by a Louisville grand jury. No officers were charged directly with her death, according to CNN reporters.

    The trial for Brett Hankison on three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment of Taylor’s neighbors was originally set for August 31st. but has now been moved to February 01, 2022.

    On April 26, 2021 Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Department of Justice would open an investigation into the practices of the Louisville, Kentucky, police department. According to reporting in USA Today on April 26, 2021 by Masood Farivar the justice department is conducting its own criminal investigation into Taylor’s death.

    Detectives Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison, along with Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, fired 32 times into Taylor’s apartment with reportedly five or six shots hitting her but have never been charged for her death. Cosgrove has been determined to be the person who fired the fatal shot that killed Taylor and was dismissed from the Louisville police force – as was Hankison. Sgt. Mattingly retired from the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department on June 01, 2021 after twenty-one years of service with full pension benefits.

    Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. says “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

    I have felt from the beginning, and continue to feel, the murder of Breonna Taylor affects me indirectly in a profound way. Injustice in allowing her death to go unpunished is a threat to justice everywhere, and I cry for justice for her today.

    Breonna Taylor, say her name.

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    Stay safe, stay sane, get vaccinated and please stay tuned.

  • which little girl had the most fun at the zoo?

    which little girl had the most fun at the zoo?


    Yesterday was hot – not Phoenix, Arizona hot – but a typical summer day in Columbia, South Carolina that was hot with high humidity. What better time for Pretty and me to take our 22-month-old granddaughter to the zoo, right? The zoo?

    No, not the animal viewing side of the zoo. We’ll save that for the fall and cooler temps. Pretty had heard about the Waterfall Junction in the Botanical Gardens, however, and that was our plan for this babysitting day.

    everyone came to play

    Ella (in pink bathing suit) and Pretty stare at boys

    Pretty asks is this the most fun ever?

    Naynay, come – come get in the water with us!

    Ok, then. I’ll hang with Nanna.

    Wheeee – this is the most fun!

    I wonder if these boys would like to play with me?

    Who cares about them – I have my Nanna

    Wow – look at this big rock

    It’s the biggest rock I’ve ever seen up close

    Catch me if you can, Nanna

    I’m hiding from Nanna behind the water

    Sorry, Naynay – I have to play without you today

    I love the water!

    This yellow thing is as big as I am

    I don’t care – I’m strong

    Naynay, do you have my water bottle?

    Have I seen everything yet?

    I hope so – I’m a little tired

    I’m not THAT tired

    Nanna, wait for me! Is that an Olympics balance beam?

    I have to say I’m hard pressed to choose which little girl had the most fun today. Pretty releases her inner child with our granddaughter who has fun wherever we go, and I have fun watching them even when I forgot to wear a hat. Seats in the shade were at a premium; I had to play the old person card to get one.

    Our thanks to our friends Saskia and her son Finn who gave us a family pass to the Riverbanks Zoo for our birthdays this spring. This was our first time to use it, but I promise it won’t be the last.

    Stay safe, stay sane, get vaccinated and please stay tuned.

  • Pretty quoted Poe – that was a shocker

    Pretty quoted Poe – that was a shocker


    Once upon a time long ago and far away – but not too far away – I was in hot pursuit of Pretty who was clearly out of my lesbian league. In an attempt to impress her with my heat by being ultra cool, I recited love poems to her including one of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s most famous Sonnets from the Portuguese. You know the one. How do I love thee, let me count the ways.

    How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
    I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
    My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
    For the ends of being and ideal grace.
    I love thee to the level of every day’s
    Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
    I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
    I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
    I love thee with the passion put to use
    In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
    I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
    With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
    Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
    I shall but love thee better after death.

    Who could resist such a passionate declaration of undying love, I thought, and who wouldn’t be impressed by someone who quoted poetry with no prompts.

    I was stunned the night I professed Browning’s promises to Pretty who didn’t miss a beat before responding with Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabel Lee

    It was many and many a year ago,
       In a kingdom by the sea,
    That a maiden there lived whom you may know
       By the name of Annabel Lee;
    And this maiden she lived with no other thought
       Than to love and be loved by me.

    I was a child and she was a child,
       In this kingdom by the sea,
    But we loved with a love that was more than love—
       I and my Annabel Lee—

    And, then, of course Pretty went on for the entire six stanzas, three with six lines, one with seven lines and two with eight. My sonnet looked weak by comparison. Sigh. Pretty was definitely out of my league.

    She still is, but miraculously twenty years later How Do I Love Thee was enough.

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    Stay safe, stay sane, get vaccinated and please stay tuned.